I’ve always loved how Moze deals with confrontation…
And I think the way he handles Tuesday’s outrage is brilliant.
-I sort of think this is his way of “sharing more” with Tuesday
and being more intimate, but right now she’s too mad to notice.

I think it’s sad, and also kind of sweet. Moze lives in a culture with very close family ties, where one’s whole life is determined by patriarchs and priests, and individuals get the most pleasure from doing their part for the family unit. He’s been told since he was a kid he was going to have this wife come from Egypt, and he looks forward to it like kids look forward to being able to drive or drink or graduate high school. It’s not part of his consciousness yet to *not* love this girl.

That said, he’s not in Egypt, and growing up in America means he’s a lot more independent than his folks might like. I hope this storyline does more than just gives him and Tuesday something to fight about. If it’s a fight at all when Moze is involved…

You know, it’s not like he’s said he loves her or wants to sleep with her or anything, all I’m getting from it is that he wants to honor his dead fathers wishes and also bring her to America. We haven’t really heard too too much about the state Egypt is in right now other than that it has people like Shep and his buddies trying to blow things up. Maybe its a terrible place to live and he really would be doing her a favor by getting her out of there. In that case, if he’s giving up a local marriage and waiting SEVEN YEARS just to save some girl he doesn’t know… Good for him, Moze is a good guy. Scuzzy, but good.

As for Moze being older, well, there are a lot of cultures out there that see nothing wrong with husbands being 2-3 times the age of the wives, especially in the Templar culture, where they see the idea of having as many children as possible to avoid extinction as a Really Good Plan. Of course, the fact that when it comes to child-bearing ages, the younger, the better, up to a point. Men, of course, NEVER need to worry about how virile they are…if they can’t procreate, well, the woman was “unworthy”. Typical backwards thinking in that time period up until the nineteenth century.

“Men, of course, NEVER need to worry about how virile they are”
What about older men?
I’d like to think that even a culture like the Jakes’ would be able to figure out that an 80-year-old man generally isn’t as virile as his 20-year-old counterpart.

I was referring to the prideful mentality about men, since the ability to procreate was a measure of status in many cultures, especially those that favor men as important and women as unimportant. If you could no longer father children, the penalties range from loss of reputation to ostracization and exile. So a lot of men in those environments tended to hold onto the image of being virile as long as possible.

Mose says that “wife” is the closest translation – perhaps she’s a type of life partner, but it’s not our typical husband/wife relationship, something that developed in parallel Egypt’s currrent culture, grown from some sort of religious belief or duty. Perhaps she’s just someone to care for him in his old age!

I’d wait for that. Hell, I could use one now… I’ve started getting arthritis!

I wonder what the mose’s fiance thinks about the situation. Is she happy about the marriage? is she not happy about the marriage but is looking forward to going to America? Does her personality completely clash with Mose? Is she nervous about meeting a man much older then her who she is expected to marry? I know the comic perspective never usually leaves templar, but I sort of want to see alternate reality Egypt so I could get these questions answered and see Mose’s extended family.

See, THIS is the question. People keep going “Oh, Tuesday, you’re such an intolerant jerk” as opposed to “Wait? What does Merythre have to say about this setup? Shouldn’t she have a choice?”
Seriously, people.
Also: I want a ‘we hunt kings’ shirt.

Call me weird, but I find Tuesday’s angry collarbones in the second panel oddly attractive.

That aside, I find myself liking Moze more and more. Either he thinks she’s pretty darn cute and wouldn’t mind the wait (which I wouldn’t be entirely surprised at) or he believes he’ll doing a good thing for Merytre by getting her out of there via the ‘marriage’.

Am I the only one who suspects that Moze may be neither creepy nor sweet, but instead might be playing family politics? Thutmose’s family’s pressure to “marry local” likely isn’t just out of some desire to see him settle down and start churning out grandkids. They want him to start living up to the family name (whatever that entails, it seems to include breeding “within the race”).

By sticking with Mertyre, he honors his father’s word – which they can’t entirely fault him for – and defer the issue for seven more years.

Personally, I think age IS a significant issue for Moze, which is why a distant eleven-year-old s preferable to a local fourteen-year-old:http://templaraz.com/?p=430

Wait, Moze is only 24? Or maybe 23 or 22, given how the picture of “baby” Mertyre looks more like a toddler than an infant. That’s…less creepy than the 30-35 I was thinking he was! And an 11-13 year age gap is not unworkable in a relationship, though it’s trickier when one partner is very young.

Regarding the age gap- When I was eleven, my man was nineteen/twenty. Creepy to think in those terms, 8ut seeing as I’m certainly not eleven anymore, and we met when I was 20.. *shrug* It doesn’t matter until we’re talking a8out pop culture from our childhoods. Not a huge pro8lem.

You know? 13 years isn’t a terrible age gap—especially once the younger person gets into their 20s. And lots of people still get married (or at least pop out kids) in their late teens. For Moze, seven years is probably enough time to get out his ya-yas and get himself together to be a “presentable” husband. He’s kind of a slob now, but he’s only in his early 20s. People can change a lot between that point and when they turn 30.

Obviously, he’s got lots of reasons to go along with the arrangement (including one person mentioning that waiting for an 11 year old in Egypt to turn 18 is better than marrying a 14 year old cousin), but I sense the biggest one is that he wishes to honor his dead father’s wishes. He seems sentimental and even proud of doing it.

What’s beautiful about Tuesday and Moze’s relationship is that it’s this subtle dance of two lunkheads who appear to be medically incapable of realizing that the culture they grew up in isn’t universally understood.

Seriously, though, you can tell Tuesday has nearly zero experience with people who aren’t desperate to win arguments.

Man, Tuesday’s got a legit position. I would not be automatically understanding OR thinking my lover was sweet for having an imported eleven year old child bride. That said, love the dynamic of the argument. The two entirely different personalities are clashing nicely.